Amazon is rumored to be acquiring CloudEndure, a small Israeli start-up that offers back-up services for cloud computing, for a reported $200 million, according to Israeli media.
Although neither company could be reached to confirm the report, the buy would make sense for Amazon, the world's leading cloud computing provider.
As attacks proliferate far beyond the reach of most companies' cybersecurity capabilities, many firms are looking to have greater "resilience" rather than merely trying to prevent attacks.
Resilience means having a good plan to recover lost data. This requires backing up tons of information, especially the data that is used to run critical corporate systems, which can be everything from payroll to factory machines to high-speed trading. Backing up data that fuels operations can be a surprisingly complex task, particularly when that data needs to be called up quickly to keep the business running.
This was the problem underpinning many of the operations and logistics breakdowns that occurred during 2017's WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks. Ransomware is malware that freezes a company's access to critical data, unless they pay a fee to recover it. Sometimes, the fee doesn't help because the data has already been destroyed.
During these attacks, organizations like Britain's National Health Service, FedEx, shipping giant Maersk and drugmaker Merck all experienced major operational issues because they didn't have, or couldn't quickly access, back-up data.
If Amazon added this kind of disaster-resilience service to AWS, it could help attract clients with a particular focus on security, or those who were particularly spooked by these high-profile ransomware attacks.
CloudEndure also offers "continuous backup" services, which could allow companies to automate this backup process so it leaves little to chance should a major technology incident cut off access to data.
In addition, the start-up offers "cloud migration" services. Moving data between data centers that are owned by a company and cloud service providers can particularly trying for staff that work with the data being moved.
Amazon has said it's investing more in its hybrid cloud architecture services, which cater to companies that still must maintain on-site data centers but also use cloud services.
CloudEndure's capabilities here could help Amazon serve this specific subset of clients, many of which are in the financial services sector.
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